Uni staff will launch a week of action as a new report lays bare the devastation of COVID in tertiary education, with close to one in five staff losing their jobs in 2021.
The Centre for Future Work analysis, An Avoidable Catastrophe: Pandemic Job Losses in Higher Education and their Consequences, shows that universities and the broader tertiary sector have lost more jobs in the last 12 months than any other non-agricultural sector in the economy.
In that period, over 40,000 tertiary education workers lost their jobs across the country. Over sixty percent of the jobs lost were held by women.
University job losses have been much worse this year than in the first year of the pandemic. An estimated 35,000 job losses were lost at public universities. More jobs disappeared at TAFEs and other public vocational education institutions.
"This report details the wholesale job destruction at our nation's universities and the future consequences of the Federal Government just letting this sector drift," said NTEU National President, Dr Alison Barnes.
"It is now incumbent on vice chancellors to step up and secure jobs and careers. The pandemic must not be an excuse
